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Friday, February 25, 2011

3.3.17.3. Fight Another Day - Part 3

Things aren’t going well in the sky either. The gyropter squad has lost half of its numbers, while the dark flyers are still swarming. Even the Aurora archers, soldiers and cannoneers are also overwhelmed under this attack.

Carolyn has even summoned the Guardian Spirit, Aegis the Thunder Bird to fight the Succubus Queen, displaying an impressive dogfight of speed and agility. It’s a long fight, and neither can’t seem to get the upper hand. The only drawback is, Carolyn is running out of mana to sustain Aegis in this world.

I must finish this. I can’t hold Aegis up for too long. I can still cast Xacravenos one more time, but it’ll hit the gyropters too.

Carol is thinking hard, and Aegis still can’t finish the Archdemoness off. The next moment, she sees the gyropters withdrawing, scattering everywhere because they’re outnumbered, and maybe because they’re afraid Aegis might hit them on its path.

Seeing this opportunity, Carolyn waves her magic trident to cast the ultimate spell: Wrath of the Skies. However, pumping her aura with mana hurts her. Probably, her mana has dropped too low, so she uses her stamina to get into the desired aura level – pushing herself beyond her limits. Any mistake will deal permanent damage on her, or worse, she’ll be dead.

Yet, she casts the spell anyway, ‘Xacravenos!’

The post-rain clouds form up again. The light of dawn gets dimmer. Lightning blasts, thunder rumbles, but no rain falls. Instead, lots of lightning bolts strike, and they are all heading to one target: Aegis. As the core, the Thunder Bird emits a vortex around it, encircling it, wider and wider.

The Succubus Queen breaks away from her fight with Aegis and tries to escape, but she is trapped inside the lightning vortex. Lots of flying monsters are caught and destroyed within the force – along with three gyropters still caught in a fight.

The vortex contorts as it reaches the limit of its size and power, and it explodes, spreading shards of lightning everywhere. Thanks to Quazar’s timely decision, the airship activates its force field and is averted from damage. The force field cuts the aura connection between Carolyn and Aegis, so the Guardian Spirit dissolves, going back into the limbo. Exhausted, the summoner collapses on all fours on the floor.

After a slight pause, she gets up, drinking her spirit potion to recover her mana. Suddenly, she drops the empty bottle. Her eyes widen and her face loses color. In front of her, the Dark Side flyers are still swarming. Apparently, plenty were killed in the vortex, but there are still plenty more.

The Aurora is the only air unit for the Light Side now.

Iris, this is definitely a good time for you to come back now. Please, bring help. If you don’t, at least come aboard quick because we won’t leave Freidle without you. We’re in this together until the end. We, the Twelve Paladins.

The airship is now a target of attacks. The wyverns shoot dark bolts from every side, ramming on the force field to weaken it.

Slowly but surely, under that extreme pressure, the force field is going to break and Quazar knows it.

The force field vanishes, and a rain of projectiles shoots to all directions from the Aurora like wings of death. Many dark flyers, some wyvern riders fall victim to the cannons and arrows piercing every part of their bodies. The first wave is wiped out, comes the second wave and the second volley. However, the enemy is ready. A number of them dodge the attack and even shoot into the airship. Many giant bats with explosives attached on them even intrude into the ship, seeking to destroy it from within. Only few manage to blow up inside, causing damage and casualties in the ship.

Carolyn now has the reason to panic. Oh no! The Aurora won’t last more beatings! At this rate, the enemies will bring it down for sure! Aegis needs time to recover before I can summon it again, and my magic won’t be enough to handle this swarm! Oh Vadis the Almighty, you are our only hope now. What is your wish? Do you want us to prevail or perish? We will fight to the end or fight another day if we can, yet may your wishes be done.

She prays on, clutching the Pendant of Preservation in both hands. Just then, a giant bat with explosives sees her and darts to her. She is like a sitting duck ready to be blown into little pieces, and her eyes are still closed! Unaware of death coming so fast and close...

BA-DOOM!!!

Zal'fira the Necromancess - Final Chara Art

The bat blows up! Carol is startled and she opens her eyes, seeing the explosion so close to her. The next thing she sees is bolts of fire raining near the airship, coming from the south, burning all creatures with wings on their path. Her eyes gleam with hope as she looks upwards to the distance...

At last...Help has arrived! Bless you, Borgian Dragon Riders! May Vadis bless you for coming!

Up in the sky, about a hundred dragons and a gigantic three-headed white dragon fly in great speed, in attacking formations. In the center of the formation, the ancient Hazmat surveys enemy positions and commands his comrades, 'All formations, spread out and engage the enemy! Help the ground units if necessary!'

The dragon riders' formation spread like supernova, covering the sky, painting it red with jets of fire shooting here and there. Many dark flyers get scorched and burst to crisp, or knocked down by the wind of their passing. Their strongest adversaries so far are the Sylvanian Wyvern Riders, who are now focusing their attacks on their rivals since ancient times. Soon, dogfights erupt between them with sparks of fire and hollow blasts like splendid fireworks in the cloudy sky.

Hazmat, on the other hand, is on rampage. Not only he disintegrates the enemies with the rayblasts from his three heads, he also crushes them with his gigantic claws and fangs. Overall, the air fights are pretty much balanced.

On the hills, Arachus is amazed to see the dragon riders back in action, especially, 'Hazmat! That meddling lizard! How dare he and his pathetic critters break into our party! Oooh! Wait until I get my hands on him...!'

'That won't be necessary, Lord Regent,' says a deathly, eerie voice. Arachus looks back and finds the masked, hooded person in all black - one of his generals, who talks on.

'Just let his old rival handle him.'

The masked one lifts two hands holding the Viper Cane, the very weapon once belonged to the deceased Zal'fira the Necromancess. Besides its necropotence powers to raise the dead into undead and meddle with the minds of the living, he Viper Cane has another use:'An Omegron Aschi!'

A hexagonal, glowing mark fills the sky above them. The next second, a gigantic creature flies out from the mark. First, its black head, and then its neck, torso, wings and finally tail, all black, dark as night. It has five eyes (minus one which Robert destroyed). Like other ancients, its body bears battle scars and marks. Its wings are like torn, but it doesn't slow it down in the air.

'Omegron? Perfect. Good choice, lich.'

The lich (undead necromancers/kings/knights who retains his mind and/or body after death) doesn't respond. She just adjusts her mask and keeps her head low.

Omegron, the Ancient Black Dragon looks around and knows what to do at once. It charges towards its old rival, Hazmat in full speed and rams its opponent. Hazmat is pushed back but maintains his balance at a point. He stares at Omegron, saying, 'Well, if it's the same ol' Omegron, always jump-starting, you sneaky devil, you.'

Hazmat shoots a double rayblast at Omegron and the latter avoids it. The next second, the White catches the Black and both wrestle and bite each other - the way beasts fight each other. Hazmat tries to taunt his opponent, 'Don't think that you can defeat me again like last time, Blackie. I'm much stronger now with Galliard's soul empowering me. And you? What did you get? Oh yes, you got one eye missing and you really need a new pair of wings to replace that rag. What? You can't hear me? Oh, yes, of course, how could I forget? You're still a wild ancient so you can't talk back. That's no wonder, you're so ugly so none of your masters wanted to merge his soul with your body...'

Wild as it is, Omegron can still understand Hazmat's taunts. He attacks more aggresively and lets his guard down a bit. Nonetheless, their fight is still fierce as though they want to settle the score once and for all.The odds of the air fights are still unchanged.